


And I Love Her

by perfectlybad



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sparrow Academy (Umbrella Academy), F/F, Luther Hargreeves is a good brother, Modern Day, Post-Season/Series 02, This is probably going to be pretty sad, Vanya Hargreeves Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:48:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25916110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlybad/pseuds/perfectlybad
Summary: The Hargreeves siblings arrive back in 2019 with a flash of blue light.Everything seems to go back to normal, but Vanya just can't seem to move on. She keeps thinking about Sissy, the love of her life, who she left back in the 1960s.
Relationships: Sissy Cooper/Vanya Hargreeves
Comments: 8
Kudos: 100





	1. Chapter 1

They arrive back in their childhood home with a flash of blue light.

Vanya looks around, taking in the surroundings. One minute they’d been in the 1960s, standing around Five’s briefcase, and the next, they were here.

It all felt so surreal, everything that had happened the past couple months. Or at least it was a couple of months for her. Klaus and Allison had been in the 60s for years. And Five had experienced both apocalypses in only two weeks. Vanya had no idea how he was able to understand time travel or how any of this worked. She was still trying to wrap her head around the concept of the time-traveling briefcases.

Once they regain their balance, her and the rest of her siblings leave the room and begin looking around the house. When everything seems to be back to normal--or at least as normal as things could get around here--Vanya can hear them let out sighs of relief that mirror her own.

Five takes the initiative to open the front door and make sure everything is alright in that aspect too. He’s happy to report that there aren’t dinosaurs wandering the streets or anything equally as crazy.

Allison laughs and asks why he would even think of that as a possibility.

Five shrugs. “Weird shit happens when you mess with the timeline.”

Everyone seems to accept that.

They were lucky. Messing with time like that normally would’ve ended with dire consequences in the future, but things seem pretty normal. At least for now. Vanya doesn’t doubt one of her siblings--or even herself--will end up in some sort of mess again soon.

“So, what now?” Luther asks.

“I’m going to see Claire,” Allison says immediately, standing up. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen my daughter.”

“But what about Patrick-”

“I’ll figure it out,” she calls over her shoulder, striding out the front door.

When the door slams, the room goes quiet again. No one is really sure what to say, least of all Vanya.

She can barely process everything that’s happened in the past 24 hours--or technically, the last 56 years--and even though she has her memory back now, Vanya’s still having a hard time remembering specific details. She’s sure it’ll get better eventually.

After a few minutes of staring at each other in silence, the siblings begin to filter out of the room. Vanya supposes it was only a matter of time before they all went their separate ways, she just thought after all they’d been through recently, her siblings would want to stay and talk. Or at least want each other’s company for a little bit longer.

Klaus is the first to leave after Allison, quietly slipping from the room and heading upstairs. Vanya’s not even sure that anyone else notices he’s gone. She makes a mental note to check in on him later.

Diego leaves next, striding out the front door. He looks like he’s on a mission, but then again, when doesn’t he? It’s not like he’d tell any of his siblings where he was going anyway.

Five disappears in a flash of light, but Vanya soon hears a crash from out in the hall. She cranes her neck to see what happened, and finds Five on the ground. Standing up, she heads over to him.

“Are you alright?”

He stands up, ignoring the hand Vanya offered him and brushing his uniform off. “Never better.”

He’s obviously lying, though. She can tell something’s bothering him.

Apparently, the unimpressed face she gives Five is convincing enough, because he actually gives in.

“Fine,” he scowls. “I’m tired, okay? It’s been a rough two weeks!”

“It’s alright, Five,” Vanya tells him, offering a small smile. “It’s over now. You can go rest. Head up to your old room if you want.”

“That’s just the thing, though,” he tells her. “I can’t! I don’t know how to. I’ve always been on some mission or other, and I guess I’ve never really had downtime before. Even when we were kids, Dad was always training us or sending us places.”

Quite frankly, Vanya is impressed that Five is opening up this much. She never thought she’d see the day. She doesn’t know what to say to help him, though.

“That’s exactly why you need it!” Vanya says earnestly. “Go upstairs and lay down for a bit. If you want, go to the library and find a book to read. You have all the time in the world.” She begins to usher him towards the staircase.

“Fine, fine! I’m going!” Five pulls away from her and runs up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

Having nothing else to do, Vanya heads upstairs after him to her old childhood bedroom. She’s tired too, exhausted after everything that’s happened, and decides to lay down for a bit.

When she opens the door to her room, she’s surprised by how empty it is. It really shouldn’t be a surprise, since she moved out of the house years ago, but it’s still weird for her to be back and for none of her things to be with her. Vanya always thought that if she returned, it would be for good or not at all.

She collapses onto the bed, still fully clothed, and clasps her hands behind her head. Closing her eyes, Vanya tries to clear her mind, but it’s impossible. She was always an overthinker, worrying about things even in the best of times.

Eventually, she gives up on getting any sleep, and lets her mind drift back to her thoughts from before. Even after all her siblings had grown apart and went their separate ways, she’d still held onto the hope that they’d all be okay again someday. It was more of a fantasy, really, a world where their powers didn’t affect them and where Reginald never controlled any of them, but it was still something Vanya used to think of often. Usually when she was feeling particularly lonely.

A knock on the door draws Vanya out of her spiralling thoughts.

“Come in,” she calls to whoever’s there.

Luther appears, ducking his head to fit into the room. He gives her a small half-smile and sits at the foot of the bed. She can tell he’s trying to put as much distance between them as possible, but she’s not sure if it’s on purpose or just a reflex. They haven’t exactly spent a lot of time together in a while, and when they have, most of it hasn’t exactly been good.

“Is this alright?” he asks, gesturing to where he’s sitting.

“It’s fine,” Vanya reassures him. “Is there something you want to talk to me about?”

“Kind of, yeah.”

She makes a motion between them as if to tell him to say whatever it is.

“Well, first of all, I just want to say I’m sorry. For everything. I know I’ve said it before, but I feel really guilty about what happened when we were here in 2019, and I want to make sure you’re alright.”

Vanya’s surprised by his apology. It’s not unwanted, but she definitely hadn’t been expecting anything like this.

“Thank you, I really appreciate it. I hope things can be better between us.”

Luther nods along at that. “So do I.”

After a minute of semi-awkward silence, Vanya breaks it.

“So, what’s the second part.”

“Of what?”

“Well, you said _first of all_ , so I assumed you had another thing to say.”

“Oh, yeah. That.” Luther began slowly. She could tell he was struggling with what to say. “That woman you were with before, back at that farm...Was she-”

“I was in love with her.” Vanya was surprised by how easily those words come out of her mouth. “Well, I still am. But she’s gone now. Stuck in the 60s.”

Luther is quiet for a moment.

“It’s probably for the best, anyway,” she continues dejectedly. “She’ll be better off without me. Safer, at least.”

“Tell me about her.”

“What?” Vanya looks up from the spot she was staring at on the couch. Her siblings had never taken much of an interest in her problems, at least not if they weren’t concerning the fate of the world. Even then, it wasn’t her they cared about, it was the safety of other people that was important to them.

“Tell me what she was like. Sissy--was that her name? She must’ve been very special.”

Vanya nods slowly. It’s still hard getting used to this new Luther. He’d really changed during that time in the 60s. Or maybe he’d always been like this, but their dad had gotten in the way. It could be hard to tell what things were actually parts of her sibling’s personalities, and what things were because of how bad their dad messed them up. Sometimes Vanya feels like her whole personality was based off the things that happened during her childhood.

Either way, she’s happy that her and Luther were at least on good terms. It’s a start.

“She was. She had beautiful blonde hair, and the biggest smile. She was always smiling.” Vanya thinks fondly of the memories from her short time at the farm. Not all of it was great, but she wouldn’t trade her time with Sissy for anything. “But that’s not all. Sissy was smart, and so brave, and she wasn’t afraid to stand up for what she believed in.”

Her time there had been nice while it lasted, and even though they’d faced problems, at least they had been together. Now, she’s all alone. Vanya has a sinking feeling in her stomach that things are going to go back to the way they once were. Her siblings wouldn’t talk to her again and she’d have nowhere to go. No one to turn to.

But when she glances up at Luther, Vanya knows that’s not true. Things have changed now. For the better. And they have each other’s backs against any threats they may face in the future.

Suddenly, she feels water pool in her eyes, and before she knows it, tears are starting to stream down her face. Not a lot, but enough that Luther notices.

“Hey, hey. Vanya it’s alright. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, I just wanted to see if you wanted to talk about it. I thought it might make you feel better.” He scoots over on the bed so that he’s closer to her, and pulls Vanya into a hug.

“I-I’m fine Luther. I really appreciate it, but it’s going to take some time.”

He nods in understanding and pulls away. “Well, I’m just going to check in on Five, make sure he’s okay.”

And with that, Luther hurries out of the room.

Vanya smiles to herself, happily surprised that anyone even thought to check in on her.

___

Over the next couple of days, Luther visits Vanya more and more. She finds that he can actually be a pretty fun person to talk to.

One day he comes in and tells her about Klaus. Apparently, he’s been checking in on everyone around the house since they’ve gotten back.

“He seems really sad all the time, about Ben and all, but he’s also getting better. I can see him trying his best, and he’s been sober since we got back.”

“That sounds encouraging, but I really hope he’s alright.”

Losing Ben has probably been the hardest on Klaus. Being able to see him for years when no one else could would’ve made them really close. To the rest of them, Ben had been gone the whole time. No one had really believed Klaus about being able to see him, and Vanya deeply regrets it now. She regrets a lot about the way she’s treated Klaus over the years. It’s a lot easier now to recognize how hard it must be for him, seeing ghosts all the time.

“Don’t worry,” Luther tells her. “He’ll get through this, I’m sure.”

The next day, Luther tells her about Diego.

“Apparently, he’s been trying to find Lila- that’s her name, right?”

“Really?” Vanya asks, surprised. “Where does he think she is? With the briefcase, she could have travelled anywhere.”

Luther nods along in agreement.

“That’s exactly what I tried to tell him, but he won’t listen. You know Diego, he’s not going to give up until he finds her.”

Vanya rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I know.”

Later on, Luther finds Vanya in the living room, wanting to talk about Five.

“He’s having a hard time adjusting, do you think you could talk to him?”

“Sure. I’m happy to help.”

Vanya makes a mental note to check on her brother later.

___

A week after they get back from the 60s, she’s eating breakfast alone at the kitchen table when Luther shows up. He’s wearing a proud grin. Vanya can’t help but wonder what it’s about.

“What?” she asks abruptly. It’s definitely not something she would’ve done a couple of months ago. But that was before everything happened. She likes to think her experiences have changed her, at least a little bit. Made her braver.

Instead of responding, he slips a piece of paper into her hand.

“What is this-” Vanya begins, but Luther stops her from saying anything more.

“Trust me. Just go there.”

She’s confused about what those words mean for a minute, but when she opens up the slip of paper to find an address, things make a little more sense.

“But why are you giving this to me? What is it for?”

Luther smiles sadly. “I know I haven’t been the best brother in the past, and I’ve made a lot of bad decisions. This won’t make it right, but I wanted to do it for you. You deserve to be happy.”

Vanya’s not sure what any of this means, but Luther seems so adamant about it.

“Fine,” she sighs, giving in. “I’ll ask Allison later if I can take her car. How far away is it?”

“Not too far,” is all Luther says in reply, remaining mysterious about the whole thing.

He seems pleased that Vanya has agreed to go, but it takes her reassuring Luther nearly ten times that she will in fact visit the address later that day for him to finally leave the room.

As soon as she finishes up with her bowl of cereal, Vanya sets out for the other end of the mansion to find Allison. It’s been almost a week since they all got back from the 60s, but Allison hasn’t gotten to see Claire besides a couple of hours with Patrick supervising.

Vanya can tell not being able to see her daughter is taking a toll on her. She can’t imagine how hard it must’ve been for Allison to be stuck in the 1960s, with no clue when she would get to see her daughter again, or even if she ever would. But now that she’s back and Claire is so close, yet it’s still nearly impossible to see her, Allison is understandable upset.

That’s why Vanya is reluctant to ask something of her.

It’s not that she thinks Allison will be angry that she wants to use her car, but Vanya just feels bad to bother her over something unimportant.

When she finally reaches Allison’s room--they’re pretty much all back to staying in their childhood bedrooms again, since it’s not like they really have much else to go back to--Vanya knocks on the door.

“Come in,” a voice calls from inside.

Vanya steps into the room to find Allison stuffing things into a suitcase.

“What are you-”

“I’m able to see her!” Allison exclaims, stopping what she’s doing to face Vanya. “I’m able to visit Claire for the whole weekend!”

“That’s amazing, Allison.” Vanya smiles at her sister. “Are you leaving now?”

“Yep, I’ve already called a taxi to drive me to the airport.”

“Okay, d-do you mind if I use your car, then? I have somewhere I need to go.”

“Sure.” Allison looks intrigued, presumably about where Vanya is headed, but she doesn’t ask any questions. Besides, Vanya wouldn’t have been able to give an answer anyway.

As soon as she’s finished packing her things, Allison rushes out the door, tossing her car keys to Vanya before she goes.

“Have a good time!” Vanya calls, not really sure of the right thing to say.

“You too!” she responds, which is kind of a weird thing to tell her considering Allison doesn’t know where Vanya’s going. Hell, Vanya doesn’t even know where she’s going.

Once her sister’s taxi pulls out of the driveway, Vanya goes to put on something nicer to wear--after all, it’s best to be prepared for anything since she has no clue where the address leads. When she’s finished, she heads outside to find Allison’s car.

Sitting in the vehicle, Vanya pulls the paper out of her pocket to take another look. Typing the address into the car’s GPS, she finds that her destination is over an hour away. So much for _not too far._

___

Surprisingly, the drive goes by quickly. It’s early in the afternoon, so there isn’t much traffic, and suddenly, the GPS is telling her to turn left in 200 metres. Vanya glances around, hoping to find some sort of clue to tell her where she is, but there are so many trees blocking her view.

Once she turns left into a parking lot, though, Vanya’s able to see where she’s at. It’s a large building, with a couple of other buildings scattered around it. It’s a big place. At the top of the main building is a sign; Lakeview Retirement Home.

The address Luther gave her was a senior’s home?

Confused--but still curious--Vanya climbs out of the car. She walks up to the big doors under the sign and just stands there, unsure of what to do next. Should she go inside? It’s probably a good idea, but what is she going to say? My brother gave me this address and told me to trust him? Vanya doesn’t think that would make any sense to the staff working inside the place.

She figures, _what’s the worst that could happen?,_ and slips through the door, taking a deep breath before she does.

“Hello there,” A woman greets her from behind the counter. “Do you have an appointment to see someone?”

“Oh...Well,” Vanya begins uncertainly.

“What’s your name, dear?” The woman interrupts.

“Vanya.”

“Hm, let me see...Oh, yes! You’re right here on the list!”

“I am?” Vanya mutters to herself, following behind the lady as she walks out from behind the desk and leads her deeper into the building.

As they wander through the halls, she can’t help but wonder _why_ she has an appointment here. Did Luther book one for her? And if so, why?

The woman continues to lead her past an endless amount of rooms--a dining room, kitchen--but most of them are living quarters. Or at least Vanya assumes they are, since most of the doors are closed.

Finally, once her feet are beginning to get tired, the woman stops in front of a room. Room number 221, to be exact. Vanya stands behind her as she gently raps her knuckles on the door before entering.

About to step inside after the other woman, she suddenly gets nervous. Who is waiting for her inside? Is it someone Luther wants her to talk to? Maybe it’s somebody he thinks is important, or related to everything that happened in some way. Vanya doesn’t know who that could possibly be, though, or why they would be at a senior’s home. Nonetheless, she shutters at the thought. Just when she thinks everything is over, of course there are going to be more problems for her and her siblings to fix. Or cause.

“Are you coming in, honey?” The woman asks from the other side of the room.

She sighs and composes herself quickly, heading inside.

“Vanya?”

She turns her head to find someone sitting up in a bed, hair shimmering from the sunlight that filters through the window. She’d recognize that face anywhere.

“Sissy?”


	2. Chapter 2

Two days after seeing Sissy in that seniors' home, Vanya wakes up early. She gets dressed and brushes her teeth, rushing to get out the door. Once she’s sitting in the car and pulling out onto the street, Vanya thinks back to that day, walking into the room to find Sissy.

_From the look on her face, she hadn’t been expecting Vanya either. The entire room had been plunged into silence, and the woman who had shown Vanya around kept looking between her and Sissy, confused by the tension._

_“I’ll give you two some time to talk,” the woman had said, heading for the door. “Just come get me if you need anything. I won’t be far.”_

_Vanya nodded without tearing her gaze away from Sissy. Soon, the door clicked shut and the two of them were left alone in the room. It was spacious, but Vanya began to feel like the walls were closing in on her._

_She stared at Sissy intently, studying her face. She looked so much older than when Vanya had last seen her--56 years older, in fact. There were wrinkles on her face and her hair had faded to a dull grey, but she was still recognizable. And still so, so beautiful._

_“What-” Vanya began, not knowing where to start._

_“How do you still look like that?” Sissy interrupted in her southern drawl._

_“Like what?”_

_“Like the day you left me back in 1963.”_

_“Oh,” She thought for a moment. Sure, Sissy had seen some pretty crazy things while Vanya and her siblings were in the 60s, but how was she going to explain this? Vanya barely knew how all this time travel stuff worked herself._

_“It’s fine, I get it, your family is weird.” Sissy’s laugh was light and melodious, and it brought a smile to Vanya’s lips. “You don’t need to tell me anything right now if you don’t want to.”_

_Vanya breathed a sigh of relief. She should’ve known that Sissy would understand. And by saying_ ‘right now’ _, Sissy implied that they would have more conversations in the future. Vanya let herself imagine for a moment what that would be like. Getting to see her again. Getting to have more conversations together._

_Vanya had wanted to ask Sissy more about everything that happened during the years after she’d left 1963, but just then, the woman from before came rushing into the room. She told them that visiting hours were over now, and that Vanya had to leave. Vanya seriously doubted that much time had passed, but not wanting to argue, she allowed the woman to usher her out. She glanced over her shoulder to tell Sissy she’d be back soon before the woman shut the door behind them._

_She was once again led through the maze of hallways, and the walk back to the entrance of the building felt longer than it had the first time. When she reached her car, Vanya just sat in the driver’s seat, not going anywhere. She wasn’t sure if minutes or hours passed before she actually started up the car and drove away._

_Later that day, when Vanya returned home and had some time to process everything that happened, she approached Luther._

_“You gave me her address,” she told him, stating the obvious._

_“Technically it was a seniors' home, but yeah.”_

_Luther’s hands were in his pockets and he seemed a little sheepish, but he also wore a big grin on his face._

_“How did you even find her?”_

_“Oh, you know…”_

_Vanya didn’t know, and she waited for Luther to continue. He never did though, and just let himself trail off. She rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything else about it. Fine. If he didn’t want to tell her how he found Sissy, that was his decision to make._

_“Well, thanks. That was a really nice thing to do for me.”_

_“I was happy to do it.” Luther had told her._

The sound of a car horn draws Vanya out of her thoughts. She glances around to make sure no one is beeping at her before continuing. When she catches a glimpse of some of the road signs around her, Vanya is surprised to find that the seniors' home isn’t too far away.

It’s been two days since she’s seen Sissy, and suddenly Vanya is nervous all over again. She has no idea what she’s going to say when she gets there. What she’s going to do. Does Sissy even want to see her? For her, it’s been more than 50 years. She’s moved on, even if Vanya hasn’t.

Things might’ve been easier if Vanya had been allowed to stay and talk to Sissy when she’d first seen her that day, but of course the visiting hours had ended just when they’d started to get somewhere.

Then, when Vanya had tried to see Sissy the next day, the woman at the desk sent her away, saying that Sissy needed her rest. Vanya thought that was stupid, especially when she learned that Sissy was only allowed to have visitors 3 times a week, but she listened and booked an appointment to see her today

It had seemed like the day couldn’t come quick enough, and Vanya had tried distracting herself all week--which involved a lot of time spent practicing the violin. And now that it has finally arrived, she suddenly feels like she doesn’t want to go. Well, that wasn’t exactly true--of course she still wants to see Sissy--but Vanya just didn’t know what she was going to say when she got there.

She doesn’t think she’s going to be able to do this. Not without messing everything up. She can already imagine all the things that can possibly go wrong.

And there she goes again, overthinking things.

Vanya takes a deep breath as she turns into the seniors' home parking lot.

___

“Vanya, isn’t it?”

She nods in response to the woman at the desk’s question. It’s a different woman than the one from two days earlier, but she must’ve seen Vanya’s name written somewhere.

“You can go in, dear.” the woman prompts her when she makes no move to go further into the building.

“Oh, ok. Yeah.”

Vanya has no idea where she’s going, and is fairly certain that she’ll get lost on the way to Sissy’s room, but she sets off anyway. It didn’t seem like the woman was going to show her around any time soon, so she figures it’s worth a try to venture deeper into the retirement home herself. Even if she’s fairly certain it will end badly.

Sure enough, within two minutes of wandering the halls, Vanya is completely and utterly lost. Somehow, she finds herself by the backdoor to the kitchen. Craning her neck, she can see that there’s some sort of sitting area a bit further down the hall. Considering she already has no clue where she is, Vanya decides to just go and check it out. Hopefully, a staff member will be there who can point her in the right direction.

Instead, the person waiting for her inside is much more surprising.

“Sissy?” she finds herself asking for the second time in three days.

A woman turns around in her wheelchair to face Vanya. A woman who is very much not Sissy.

Vanya feels her face heat as she realizes her mistake. You’d think that she’d know better than to jump to a conclusion like that, but as soon as she saw the woman’s hair, pulled up like Sissy always did hers, she got excited.

“Can I help you, dear?” the woman asks. Her accent is nothing like Sissy’s. Instead of the warm, soothing sound of Sissy’s accent, her voice is crisp and clear.

“No. I was just looking for someone, but she’s not here. Sorry to bother you.” Vanya turns on her heel and tries to make a quick exit out of the room.

“Wait just a minute. Did I hear you say Sissy?”

Vanya stops in her tracks beside the door frame. “Um, yeah. That’s who I was looking for.”

“Well why didn’t you just say so?” Technically, Vanya had, but she isn’t going to bring that up. “I know her. In fact, we’ve been friends here for years.”

She nods along to what the woman is saying, but doesn’t understand where she’s going with it.

“Sissy comes down here everyday. Usually in about twenty minutes. How about you wait here, with me?”

What Vanya really wants to do is go and see Sissy, preferably as soon as possible. Instead, Vanya lets herself sit down on the couch beside the woman--who is apparently named Rebecca. As soon as she’s comfortable, Rebecca begins talking a mile a minute, launching into some story about what happened during the first week she and Sissy arrived. From what she tells her, Vanya learns that Sissy has been living at the seniors' home for almost four years.

“And then Bill fell over and broke his hip. In all the commotion, though, we hadn’t even noticed him laying on the ground.” she finishes, coming to the conclusion of a particularly violent recount of a food fight that had transpired in the dining hall.

Vanya has to admit, in the short while she’s been listening to them, she’s become completely entranced in Rebecca’s stories. Some were hilarious, some were heartfelt, some were sad, and some were just downright ridiculous.

By the time Sissy shows up at the door, way more than twenty minutes have passed, and Vanya has learned more about the seniors' home than she’d ever wanted to.

“Hello there,” she greets them, entering the room.

Vanya turns around to face her, smiling wide.

“I’ll give you two some privacy,” Rebecca announces, heading towards the door in her wheelchair.

The two older women pass each other through the doorway, and Sissy comes to sit beside Vanya on the couch. She rests on the opposite end, though, and Vanya can’t help but feel a little disappointed that Sissy is keeping her distance. As usual, her mind jumps to conclusions. Is she uncomfortable around Vanya? Does she not want to be close to her?

But it’s probably nothing, she reassures herself, controlling her breathing.

“So,” Vanya breaks the silence that’s fallen between them. “Where were we?”

___

Surprisingly, talking to her wasn’t as hard as Vanya thought it was going to be. She should’ve expected that, though. After all, it was _Sissy_.

They start by talking about easy things. The weather, Rebecca’s stories, some of the other people at the seniors' home. Things that won’t make either of them too anxious. All while ignoring the obvious things they need to talk about.

But despite this, Vanya eventually breaks, letting her nerves get the best of her. About halfway through their conversation, she starts rambling uncontrollably.

“You said that I didn’t need to tell you everything that happened with me and my siblings after we left, but you deserve to know.”

Sissy looks like she wants to say something, and Vanya pauses to let her, but she never does. Vanya presses forward with her explanation.

“Basically, my brother found a way to get us back home. Back to now. 2019. This is where I was always from.” She pauses and lets it sink in. It’s only a small part of all the crazy things about her family, but it’s the best place to start.

“So you...time-travelled?” Sissy seems more calm about it than she’d expected.

Vanya nods.

“And all that time--back in the 60s--you were from the future?”

She nods again, sighing. “Yeah.”

Sissy sat back against the couch. Processing everything, Vanya supposes. “Wow. That’s a lot to take in. But I guess I always knew there was something different about you anyway.”

She turns her head towards Vanya and offers a warm smile. After all these years, her beautiful smile--capable of lighting up a room--had never changed.

Just then, the woman from the front desk rushes into the room. She looks back and forth between Vanya and Sissy. “I...I’ve been looking all over for you!” she exclaims, trying to catch her breath while shooting an accusatory glare at Vanya.

Has she been running all over the seniors’ home in search of her? Sissy must’ve been wondering the same thing because her and Vanya share a look, grinning a little.

“Visiting hours are over now. I’ll show you out.”

Vanya glances over at Sissy again, only this time her expression is more serious. She feels bad to leave like this again, in the same way she had three days earlier. Especially when there are so many more things they had to say to each other. Vanya makes a promise to herself not to let this happen a third time. Next visit, she would make sure there was enough time to discuss everything. And she meant _everything_. There was no way she was going to let someone interrupt them again.

Until then, she follows the woman out of the seniors' home and back to her car.

At least it hadn’t gone as badly as she’d expected it to, and Vanya smiles at the memory of Sissy’s bright grin and kind eyes all the way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> This is more of a set-up chapter, but I promise there are more exciting things to come ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I'm not sure how long this will be, but I have the whole fic planned out, so stay tuned for the next chapter :)


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